The glass roof on my Model YL is lovely to look at, but under a summer sun the space above your head gets warm. That is the short version of why I ended up fitting a Model YL roof sunshade.
It has a silver coating, so it never gets unbearable. Still, after a while of direct sunlight you can feel the heat slowly seeping down from overhead.
The other thing that bothered me was night driving. My kids try to sleep in the back seats, and tunnel lights plus street lamps keep sliding past overhead through the glass.
So the openness that makes a glass roof special turns into a downside on the hottest days, as well as on the nights when you just want the cabin dark. AliExpress it was, then.
Buying a Model YL roof sunshade on AliExpress for ¥3,644
What I bought is sold as the 6-seater Model YL version of the shades made for the Model Y Juniper / Model 3 Highland.
The list price was ¥3,979 (approx. $27), a coupon knocked ¥335 (approx. $2) off, so the total came to ¥3,644 (approx. $25). Shipping was ¥1, which is essentially free.
The order screen is in Japanese. The product line reads “Tesla Model Y Juniper / Model 3 Highland 2…”, with the variant “MYL 6seater Black” below it. The price shown is ¥3,979 (approx. $27 USD) × 1.
This is the exact one I ordered.
To be honest, what I really wanted was a retractable shade. Keep the open feeling of the glass roof, then slide it shut only when you need to.
The retractable one costs about ten times as much, though. It looks great, but for a first try I went with the cheap clip-in panel to see whether I would even use it.
The bare glass roof: great views, plenty of summer heat
Here is the roof before fitting anything. I took this while charging at a Tesla Supercharger.
The whole ceiling is glass, so the view is genuinely great. Park it in midsummer sun, though, and you feel the warmth building even through the silver coating.
That was true while sitting in the car waiting for a charge, and on bright days I wanted a shade while driving too.
Fitting the Model YL roof sunshade is just clipping it in
Installed, it looks like this. The panel simply tucks into the inner edge of the roof trim. No drilling, no adhesive, nothing permanent.
The box includes about 14 clips
The Model YL roof sunshade is held in place with small plastic clips, and roughly 14 of them come in the box.
The fabric edge is marked “FRONT VIEW”, so there is no guessing which way round it goes. The red circle in the photo below is one of the clips actually pinched onto the edge.
I only use three clips at the front, three at the back
Using all 14 clips makes the shade a pain to take out again.
So I fit just enough to stop it drooping: three clips along the front edge, three along the rear.
The red circles below are close-ups of the clips I actually have in place.
It has never budged in normal driving, yet I can pull the whole thing out in seconds when I want the glass back.
What the Model YL roof sunshade actually does
The effect I noticed most clearly was daytime heat.
A trip to Karuizawa without it got hot fast
The test happened by accident on a recent drive up to Karuizawa, a highland resort town northwest of Tokyo. I set off with the shade removed, which turned out to be a mistake.
Even at altitude, the summer sun is fierce, and taking it straight through the glass roof made the space above my head steadily warmer. The silver coating helps, but under sustained direct sun the heat still builds up.
Partway through the trip I gave in and put the shade back on.
The heat coming down from above eased off noticeably. I compared both states on the same day, in the same weather, so this is not my imagination.
I had assumed I could live without it. The difference in how the cabin feels turned out to be much bigger than expected, especially on bright days.
Less night glare is a welcome bonus
The night-time benefit is smaller than the heat one, but it landed as I hoped.
On late drives, my kids used to struggle to drop off in the back, with tunnel lighting plus street lamps streaming past overhead.
Since fitting the shade, that overhead light is blocked, so they seem to settle much faster.
Heat rejection is the main event here. Cutting glare is a nice extra.
Wrapping up
The Model YL roof sunshade cost ¥3,644 (approx. $25) after the coupon.
- The biggest win is daytime heat rejection. Drive without it in summer sun, then your head gets warm within minutes
- Blocking tunnel lights plus street lamps at night helps the kids sleep, though that is a secondary benefit
- Skip most of the clips. Three at the front, three at the rear keeps it secure while staying easy to remove
It works far better against heat than I expected, so it is staying in the car for the rest of the summer.
Here is the shade I bought.
This article is also available in Japanese.
